Sands of history

For the past one and a half month, the first page of every newspaper in the republic of India carried nothing but never ending articles about the book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah by one Jaswant Singh and the consequences he and his party had to bear, as they were thrashed from every direction for writing about the man in question, Jinnah in slightly positive light. Even the editorial page was not spared and every notable editor and celebrity writer in India, even those who had nothing much to say on the topic picked up their pen and wrote. This one book alone gave Jaswant Singh more publicity than his entire stint as the external affairs minister of India. Now that the issue has finally lost steam and the press has suddenly discovered that there is a whole world to write about, I thought I can have my say in peace.

I have always been very fortunate to have a well networked father, Satan. So, I had the pleasure of writing to Mr. Jaswant directly asking him why like the sudden spurt of rainfall all over the country, he had this urge to write about something so clichéd like Mr. Jinnah and the partition era. He was courteous enough to reply promptly and elaborated in detail why he had taken such a decision. He also wished I address him as Jaswant uncle for he felt a lot more liked then. He wrote that one evening when he was out for a walk in the local park, he bumped into a guy who was sitting peacefully on a bench and reading the evening news. When he looked at him, he was surprised to see that he looked freakishly similar to Mr. Jinnah. Amazed with the resemblance, Jaswant uncle blurted it out. The other man looked at Jaswant uncle alarmed, and smiled back. He said, “Yeah, I get that a lot. Big man he was, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.” The pleasant manner in which his hasty remark was taken took Jaswant uncle by surprise, for the post-independence Indian history has scrutinised every single detail of Jinnah; distorted and conveniently played with it making Jinnah nothing less demonic and iconic than the dark lord, Sauron from the Lord of the Rings series. He sensed Jaswant uncle’s surprise and asked him to join him. And then, he began.

“A time not so long ago, there was a nation of over 350 million. It was ruled over by a smaller but, more powerful nation. The ruling nation was a rather selfish one and didn’t care much about the subject nation. This created a lot of dissidence in the people regarding the policies of the ruling nation. So, a few rebelled. When they were crushed by the government, they rebelled harder. Still, it yielded no results. And the entire nation of 350mil shouted in unison and the ruling nation peed in its pants. The fact that it itself was going through an internal turmoil didn’t help matters. So, they agreed to withdraw and grant independence to the subject nation.

Now, the catch came here. All this time, the entire population of 350mil was more or less represented by a group of leaders. Gradually, their popularity and reach grew to such colossal heights that they became larger than life personalities. In fact, they were so large that the nation swayed if one of them sneezed, or groaned in pain if one of them had an upset stomach. Now, of these leaders, three leaders towered over the rest. Though many argue there are more; for the sake of this story, let us just say there are three. One of these was a man of high morals and principles. He had no political ambitions whatsoever. The other two on the other hand were smart, articulate, charismatic orators who had great visions for the country. They were very ambitious too. Both represented the hopes, aspirations, and apprehensions and fears of two particular sections of people. However, they were hardly anything like the people they represented. One represented the Muslims but, he relished pork, loved liquor, never did his namaz and wore nothing but the finest of English suits. The other was a more secular face but since the Muslims backed the first one, the Hindus backed him. He too was not exactly a devout Hindu. Either way, they were 'judwa' images of each other. These similarities became the core reason for the revulsion they had for each other.

They differed in just one thing, and it was the dream they had for the new independent nation. The Muslim one wanted a loose confederation of Balkan states which functioned independently. The other envisioned a great socialist power in the new nation with a strong central government working in tandem with the state governments. So, when the time had come, they wanted their own way. Since both held high posts in the interim government, they started pulling it in two different directions. Their aides simply followed the leaders and didn’t help much. The Muslim guy’s aide controlled the finance of the nation. The other was involved with the planning. Now, he was not getting the money he wanted. But, there was nothing he could do about it. Also by this time, the idea of splitting the spoils had come up in both their heads. So, as one of them put it, ‘If you have a headache, chop the head off and it is gone’ the head and body were torn apart and both got their way. As this division happened, both bled and the blood that flowed formed a thick stream of hatred and loathing which kept the two new nations apart.

Honestly, the mistake was nobody’s. The Muslim was never the communal prick he was and the Hindu was not always the thick headed git he acted like. It was just that as things shaped up, they had to take those routes for what they felt in their own ways was the common good. And like they say, there is never a ‘if it would have happened in another way’ in history. Everything in history happened the way it had happened because it was the only way it could have happened. The best we can do is to study and learn from it. However, it is incredibly foolish to dwell upon it.”

And it stopped. Jaswant uncle who till now, was busy absorbing every word keenly opened his eyes and saw there was nobody around. Actually, there was not a single human soul anywhere near where he was sitting. He had no clue how the other guy who was talking to him till a moment ago, had vanished into thin air. The sudden eeriness of the situation gave Jaswant uncle goose bumps and he rushed back home. But, the story clung in his head for a long time to come. And that is how he ended up in the soup he is in right now.